When applying for marriage, brides or grooms will now need to provide their details Biometric details. However, during the registration process, the couple and their three witnesses must record their biometric information. Marriage registrars will now be present with laptops and fingerprint scanners.
In the first two weeks of the policy’s rollout, 5,768 marriage applications with biometric details had been submitted as of Wednesday, while more than 2,700 marriages had been registered using biometrics.
“The state government has amended the marriage rules in 2022 to make the use of biometrics mandatory for marriage applications and registrations,” a senior official said.
However, the implementation started this month after marriage registrars procured fingerprint scanners and were trained in batches of 10 to 15 by senior trainers across all divisions. “The role of the marriage registrar is now very important. The registrar can now access the online marriage portal using his or her own website biometric identification. After logging in, the session will remain active for 30 minutes. During this time, fingerprints need to be uploaded. “The official said.
“Physical signatures and identification documents required earlier will remain. Fingerprints will become an additional mandatory requirement,” an official said.
Currently, the new rules apply only to marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1954, and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. This may later be extended to all legal marriages.
The move to make the use of biometrics mandatory comes after the state decided to make all marriages digital from June 1, 2019.
“This will go a long way in stamping out impersonation cases,” an official said. “The fingerprints collected will be encrypted and masked. Even if the marriage portal is hacked, the data cannot be accessed. There is no possibility of any identity theft.”
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